When an electrical box is mounted on a stud, it is common for one side of the box to be attached to the stud using flanges of some type which are mounted or mountable on the box. The depth of the box, extending perpendicular to the sheets of drywall or wallboard which will be attached to the opposite faces of the stud, is generally shallower than the distance between the inner faces of the wallboard. Since the box may have a significant dimension in the direction away from the stud, pressure against the un-mounted side of the box can cause the box to move within the cavity. This can have undesirable effects, but is at the very least, unacceptable from an aesthetic point of view. In addition, building codes commonly require some form of stabilization of the box which causes the installers to adopt such techniques as attaching a piece of dummy stud to the unmounted side of the box, the term "dummy stud" referring to a short piece of stud which is attached to the side of the box simply to stabilize it, but which performs no other function.
Such make-shift techniques satisfy the needs of the moment but are wasteful of time and materials and add expense for the ultimate consumer.
Various techniques have been suggested for overcoming this difficulty including such measures as providing threaded members or clip-on members to provide bracing for the box. However, such devices either are not particularly reliable or they form a metal protrusion within the box which is unacceptable because it can interfere with the wiring or other devices put in the box and presents a significant danger of coming in contact with electrically energized components therein.